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The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that exercises authority over the security of the traveling public in the United States

The TSA was created as part of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, sponsored by Don Young in the United States House of Representative and Ernest Hollings in the Senate, passed by the 107th U.S. Congress, and signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 19, 2001. Originally part of the United States Department of Transportation, the TSA was moved to the Department of Homeland Security on March 9, 2003. Source

There seems to be a lot of problems associated with this organization. Abuse of power being the worst. This is a rather long story. The facts are frightening to say the least.

To anyone who is going to fly, be warned it may be a very disturbing, humiliating, experience.

The scanners to begin with may be dangerous. Seems they have not been well tested as to side affects.

Scientists Cast Doubt on TSA Tests of Full-Body Scanners

by Michael Grabell
ProPublica, May 16, 2011

The Transportation Security Administration says its full-body X-ray scanners are safe and that radiation from a scan is equivalent to what’s received in about two minutes of flying. The company that makes them says it’s safer than eating a banana.

But some scientists with expertise in imaging and cancer say the evidence made public to support those claims is unreliable. And in a new letter sent to White House science adviser John Holdren, they question why the TSA won’t make the scanners available for independent testing by outside scientists.

The machines, which are designed to reveal objects hidden under clothing, have the potential to close a significant security gap for the TSA because metal detectors can’t find explosives or ceramic knives, which can be just as sharp as the box cutters that hijackers used on 9/11.

They are also important for TSA’s public relations battle over the alternative, the “enhanced pat-down,” which has bred an epidemic of viral videos: A 6-year-old girl is touched from head to toe. A former Miss USA says she was violated. A software programmer warns a screener, “If you touch my junk, I’m going to have you arrested.”

After the underwear bomber tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day 2009, the TSA ramped up deployment of full-body scanners and plans to have them at nearly every security line by 2014.

There are two types of body scanners. Millimeter wave machines emit a radio frequency similar to cellphones. Backscatters work like a fast-moving X-ray. In the latter, the rays bounce off the skin and create a fuzzy white image of the passenger’s body. Because the beam doesn’t go through the body, most of its radiation is received by the skin.

According to the agency and many radiation experts, the dose is so low, even for children or cancer patients, that someone would have to pass through the machines more than a thousand times before approaching the annual limit set by radiation safety organizations.

But the letter to the White House science adviser, signed by five professors at University of California, San Francisco, and at Arizona State University, points out several flaws in the tests. Studies published in scientific journals in the last few months have also cast doubt on the radiation dose and the machines’ ability to find explosives.

A number of scientists, including some who believe the radiation is trivial, say more testing should be done given the government’s plans to put millions of passengers through the machines. And they have been disturbed by the TSA’s reluctance to do so.

“There’s no real data on these machines, and in fact, the best guess of the dose is much, much higher than certainly what the public thinks,” said John Sedat, a professor emeritus in biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF and the primary author of the letter.

The same group stirred controversy last year when it sent a letter to Holdren arguing that while the overall dose to the body may be low, the TSA hadn’t quantified the dose to the skin. Last fall, FDA and TSA officials released a study that estimated the dose to the skin to be twice the dose to the body, though still extremely low.

In the most recent letter sent to Holdren on April 28, the professors note that the Johns Hopkins lab didn’t test an actual airport machine. Instead, the tests were done on a model built by the manufacturer, Rapiscan, and configured to resemble a system previously tested by the TSA.

The researchers’ names have been kept secret, and the report on the tests is so “heavily redacted” that “there is no way to repeat any of these measurements,” they wrote.

The physics and medical professors also took issue with the device used to measure the radiation. Although the device, known as an ion chamber, is commonly used to test medical equipment, they argue that the detector gets overwhelmed by the amount of radiation the backscatter deposits in a short time and might not provide accurate readings.

Helen Worth, a spokeswoman for the Johns Hopkins lab, referred questions to the TSA.

Part of the trouble is that there is no ideal device for measuring the radiation dose given by backscatter X-rays, said David Brenner, director of the Columbia University Center for Radiological Research. The machines emit a pencil beam that rapidly moves across and up and down the body, he said.

“We are one of the oldest and biggest radiological research centers in the country, and we find this to be a very hard technical problem,” said Brenner, who was not involved with the letter.

Another issue is that there is a lot of uncertainty with the model used to estimate cancer risk from radiation exposure to the skin, said Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a UCSF radiologist who also was not involved in the letter.

Smith-Bindman, who has testified before Congress about excessive radiation from medical scans, studied the TSA reports and said she wasn’t concerned about the airport X-rays.

The risks are “truly trivial,” she wrote in an article for the Archives of Internal Medicine. A passenger would have to undergo 50 airport scans to reach the level of a dental X-ray, 1,000 for a chest X-ray, and 4,000 for a mammogram.

Though imperfect, the available models predict that the backscatters would lead to only six cancers over the course of a lifetime among the approximately 100 million people who fly every year, Smith-Bindman concluded.

“There’s really unnecessary fear related to these scans,” she said. “What I’m not as comfortable with is that there has not been access to these machines. They are not being tested on the same regulatory basis that we see on medical equipment.”

After her article was published, Smith-Bindman was contacted by a TSA public affairs officer. During the conversation, she suggested that she or other outside scientists be allowed to test the machine. The official was shocked by the suggestion and said such access could tip off people who want to avoid detection, Smith-Bindman said.

“It was not appreciating that there’s legitimate scientific questions that have to be balanced against the security questions,” she said.

The TSA did not respond to ProPublica’s questions about why it wouldn’t allow outside testing. But at a congressional hearing in March, Robin Kane, assistant administrator for security technology, said doing so would expose a lot of sensitive information the agency wouldn’t normally share publicly. The machines had already been tested several times, he said, and if set up securely, the agency would allow more testing.

The available information leaves scientists with little to work with. Peter Rez, the Arizona State physics professor who signed the letter to Holdren, has tried to calculate the radiation by examining the handful of backscatter images that have been released publicly.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a civil liberties group, sued the Department of Homeland Security, TSA’s parent agency, in federal court seeking release of 2,000 backscatter images used in testing. But it has not been successful.

The few images that have been made public do not reveal faces or detailed private features. The TSA says the images Rez used are out of date, but Rez says the current image on TSA’s website is unusable.

Using the earlier images, Rez concluded in the Radiation Protection Dosimetry journal that it was highly unlikely the machines could have produced such high-quality images with doses of radiation as low as those described by TSA. He estimated the dose, while still very small, is 45 times higher than the results measured by Johns Hopkins.

Applying Rez’s numbers, Brenner wrote a paper for the journal Radiology, estimating that 100 additional cancers would develop for every 1 billion scans.

For Rez, the real danger occurs if the machine stops in the middle of a scan, allowing the beam to focus on a tiny area for several seconds. Given that the backscatter works with a wheel rotating at a high speed, and that the agency plans to use the scanners continuously 365 days a year, mechanical failures are likely, he said.

The TSA says that the scanners have safety systems, such as automatic shutoffs and emergency stop buttons, that will kill the beam in the event of any problem that could result in abnormal radiation. How those fail-safe systems work isn’t entirely clear.

When Johns Hopkins researchers visited the Rapiscan facility, the automatic termination appeared to work. But the full results of the shutoff tests are redacted.

What’s more, the test system didn’t have an emergency stop button. Source

The question you must ask yourself: Are they telling the truth, when they say the scanners are safe? They of course show you, in all your glorious nakedness. That in of itself is humiliating on it’s own.

Now we must move on to how this so called Security works.

The beginning starts here:

TSA Worker Crimes

This is a rather long list of crimes perpetrated by the Employees of TSA,

TSA agent forces elderly woman to empty colostomy bag

Rosemary Fecteau, an 87 year old widow from Hershey, Pennsylvania, plans to sue the TSA for forcing her to empty her colostomy bag during a pat-down.

Fecteau, who has had a colostomy bag since a mosh pit injury two years ago, is claiming that the TSA agent humiliated her in front of hundreds of passengers waiting in the security line at the Orlando International Airport yesterday. According to Fecteau, she was selected for a pat-down when the full body scanner detected her colostomy bag. Fecteau, through her lawyer, claims that she told the TSA agent that it was a colostomy bag, but the agent had “never heard of that before.” After patting down the bag, the TSA agent stated that “something feels very strange in there” and requested that Fecteau empty the contents on the inspection table nearby. Fecteau claims when she protested, the TSA agent threatened her with arrest and a $10,000 fine. Fecteau, crying and trembling, emptied her colostomy bag on the table to jeers and laughter from passengers in the security line. The TSA agent scolded Fecteau. “Why didn’t you tell me the bag was full of your crap?”

Fecteau was allowed to board the plane after the incident. A TSA spokesperson who was not aware of this specific incident, said that it appeared the TSA agent involved “acted appropriately”. Source

A TSA spokesperson who was not aware of this specific incident, said that it appeared the TSA agent involved “acted appropriately”.

I be to differ. The agent in question was cruel to and elderly woman. She was absolutely humiliated, beyond anything imaginable. He orders her to empty the bag then goes on to give her Shit for dumping shit out. Excuse the language but this type of behavior is anything but acceptable. The woman had no choice in the matter facing, arrest or a $10,000 fine.

I don’t know what planet the agent is from but on earth this is considered profound abuse of power.

Condoning such an act as the TSA spokesperson did it also an abuse of power in every way imaginable. How dare anyone condone such an action towards an elderly terrified woman. TSA says they train their employees to be sensitive. Well that is a load of BS. A blatant lie if you ask me.

Who is protecting people like this Elderly woman so horrifically, humiliated by the TSA?

This is just one incident there are many more.

Check HEREfor more nightmares the Elderly and Handicapped have been put through at the hands of TSA.

The girl’s parents tell TheDaily.com that they know their daughter needs to go through a pat-down when she flies because her crutches and braces throw off the scanners and other detectors.

But, says her father, the family recently missed their flight out of JFK because the TSA screeners were not only rude, but also could not decide how to properly screen his daughter.

Because their daughter is developmentally disabled and can react negatively to being inspected by strangers, the parents say they usually ask the screeners performing the pat-down to introduce themselves to the little girl.

“[T]he woman started screaming at me and cursing me and threatening me,” the father recalls.

Things seemed to be okay after a supervisor decided that searching the girl’s crutches would suffice.

But after the family had been sitting at the gate for an hour, the TSA suddenly decided it hadn’t done its job and it needed everyone to come back to the checkpoint to re-screen the girl.

When that was all done, the family say they attempted to race through the terminal to make their flight but they were too late and had to be re-booked onto a later flight.

The TSA gave Consumerist the following statement:

TSA takes all passengers claims seriously and each one is thoroughly reviewed. A TSA manager determined that a TSA officer did not complete the screening procedure on the child.

When the checkpoint manager learned that the screening was not completed, TSA officers went to the gate and offered to conduct a modified pat-down at the gate, or back at the checkpoint, where there is a separate screening room for privacy. The family ultimately returned to the checkpoint to complete the screening process.

TSA officers strive to screen passengers respectfully while ensuring the safety of all travelers. Source

Flier’s TSA ‘grope’ nightmare

By HEATHER HADDON

March 27, 2011

The skies were a little too friendly for a Brooklyn woman who said her security pat-down at La Guardia Airport last week felt more like fondling than frisking.

“If I had been physically attacked, this would have been a very, very similar experience,” said Nancy Campbell, 33, an urban planner who said she was traumatized by a touchy-feely female TSA agent before her flight to Washington Tuesday.

Campbell had already cleared security and was approaching the gate when the young agent stopped her, told her to drop her stuff and demanded she stand spread-eagled.

UNHAPPY LANDINGS: Brooklynite Nancy Campbell claims her search was like a physical attack.

When she protested, the agent said, “You can either continue on flailing about, or you can let me do my job. If you don’t, you can’t fly.”

The petite Brooklynite was in tears when she boarded her plane after the three-minute ordeal.

Hers is just one of the hundreds of complaints heard since Nov. 1, when the Transportation Security Administration started sending some passengers through full-body scanners to better detect explosives. Those who refused the scan would face a more vigorous pat-down.

But Campbell says she was never asked to step through a scanner. The guard provided no other options to the random pat-downs at the gate.

Putting passengers through enhanced pat-downs after they’ve already cleared security is “very, very strange,” said Christopher Calabrese, legislative counsel for the ACLU.

Campbell said two other women were groped during the random checks at Gate 18.

Ann Davis, a TSA spokeswoman, said the agency has randomly screened bags and travelers at gates since 2008.

Davis would not say if the pat-down described by Campbell broke agency protocols or was overly intrusive. When asked about the rules, Davis said she could not discuss them because of security concerns.

“We will certainly look into the specifics of this passenger’s complaint. Officers are trained to conduct these pat-downs in a professional manner,” she said.

The TSA has received 900 complaints from travelers who underwent or witnessed pat-downs and another 4,515 from those against the public friskings in general.Source

This is how the Department of Homeland Security and TSA protects the people of the US.

The above reports are up to April 2013 only.

Thank you, to those who have come forward and reported all the abuses. Thank you, to all those who have reported and collected all the information. There certainly is a mountain of crimes, being committed in the name of Security.

I will leave you with this last thought.

Disgraced Catholic priest who was defrocked after ‘sexually abusing two young girls’ now works as a TSA airport screener (Thomas Harkins)

A disgraced priest who was kicked out of the Catholic church after he allegedly abused two young girls has found new employment supervising airport security screeners for the TSA.

The post gives Thomas Harkin access thousands of travelers, including untold numbers of children, as they pass through security checkpoints at Philadelphia International Airport every day.

And now, a third alleged victim has come forward saying that Harkin molested her up to 15 times when she was 11, including in the rectory of Saint Anthony of Padua parish in Hammonton, New Jersey.

All of the alleged abuse occurred in the 1980s, but none of the alleged victims came forward before the statute of limitations expired, CBS Philadelphia reports.

Harkin could not be prosecuted, but when the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey, learned of the allegations in 2002, he was defrocked.

It’s unclear when Harkin landed the job supervising airport screeners, but the Transportation Security Administration says he in is charge of overseeing baggage, not passengers.

Karen Polesir, the Philadelphia spokeswoman with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told the TV station she fears Harkin still has access to any passengers coming through the security gates.

New allegations: A third accuser has come forward to say Harkin molested her up to 15 times at Saint Anthony of Padua parish when she was 11

As the public, we are screened to our underwear getting on a plane, and yet they hire a man like that,’ she said.Harkin, when confronted by CBS Philadelphia, denied that the public was in danger, but refused to comment on his job, on the abuse allegations, or the lawsuit filed by his newest accuser.The TSA says it hired Harkin after he cleared a criminal background check. His security record was clean because he was never arrested on the abuse allegations.However, it’s unknown whether he would have been disqualified even if he had been arrested for child molesting, Huffington Post reports.

The TSA says its background checks search for ’28 disqualifying crimes,’ but the agency doesn’t say what the crimes are, so no one can say whether sexually abusing children disqualifies potential screeners.

Harkin refused to speak with a reporter from CBS Philadelphia who confronted him over the allegations

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — To get teen terror suspect Omar Khadr to cooperate, a former U.S. Army interrogator testified Thursday, he told the wounded Canadian a “fictitious” tale of an Afghan youth who was gang-raped in an American prison and died.

“We’d tell him about this Afghan gets sent to an American prison and there’s a bunch of big black guys and big Nazis,” said the former interrogator who was since convicted of detainee abuse and was identified in court only as Interrogator No. 1.

Under Pentagon ground rules, reporters covering the hearing are not allowed to include the interrogator’s real name in their dispatches from Guantanamo. Canadian newspapers have published the name, however, and his testimony in other cases is available at the McClatchyDC.com website and elsewhere.

Interrogator No. 1 also gave an on-the-record interview with The Toronto Star in 2008 and his name was widely published in accounts of his court martial in September 2005.

The interrogators told Khadr that the Afghan – “a poor little kid … away from home, kind of isolated” – had been sent to the U.S. prison away because the interrogators were disappointed with his truthfulness, Interrogator No. 1 said. When patriotic American prisoners discovered the Afghan was a Muslim, praying five times a day, they raped him in their rage over the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Interrogator No. 1 said Khadr, who was 15 and badly wounded at the time, was told.

Khadr’s attorneys called Interrogator No. 1 to bolster Khadr’s claim that he was abused while in U.S. custody and their motion before a military judge that any confessions he made during his captivity should be considered coerced and not admissible.

Khadr, now 23, had specifically claimed in an affidavit outlining abuse that he was threatened with rape. On Tuesday, a medic identified as Mr. M testified that he once found Khadr chained by his arms to the door of his cage-like cell, hooded and in tears. That too tracked allegations included in Khadr’s affadavit.

According to court testimony, Interrogator No. 1 was attached to the 519 MP Battalion, which guarded prisoners at Bagram air base in Afghanistan in 2002. Three years later, Interrogator No. 1 pleaded guilty to three acts of detainee abuse on another captive at Bagram in December 2002.

Interrogator No. 1 said he questioned Khadr as many as 25 times over 100 hours before the teen was sent to Guantanamo for more interrogations.

According to earlier testimony, Interrogator 1 questioned Khadr the first time on a stretcher while he was still under sedation on July 29, 2002, hours after the 15-year-old was released from an U.S. Army combat hospital and life-saving surgery. He denied under questioning from defense counsel Barry Coburn that he ever threatened Khadr directly with rape.

Instead, he said, a group of U.S. interrogators dreamed up the “fictitious” Afghan rape story to utilize authorized “Love of Freedom” and “Fear Up” techniques designed to break particularly uncooperative prisoners. “It’s never about the detainee,” Interrogator No. 1 said, explaining how he used it. “It’s to make the individual … afraid of American prisons.”

U.S. troops captured Khadr two weeks before his first formal interrogation, near dead and shot twice through the back during a Special Forces raid on a suspected al Qaida stronghold near Khost, Afghanistan.

Another former interrogator, who was acquitted by a court martial of detainee abuse charges, testified Wednesday that Khadr was first questioned just two days after he was wounded at the field hospital at Bagram. That interrogator, Damien Corsetti, said Khadr was tethered to a heart monitor. Soldiers held a tin of chewing tobacco to his gaping chest wound and saw that it could fit inside.

Defense attorneys argue that the military mistreated Khadr and created a coercive environment that should disqualify the truthfulness and reliability of his later confessions that he threw a hand grenade that killed U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, 28.

Prosecutors defend the youth’s treatment and say he subsequently boasted voluntarily, and truthfully, to FBI agents conducting a criminal terror trial investigation that he threw the grenade and also planted land mines in Afghanistan meant to kill American soldiers and earn him $1,500 a head.

Veteran prosecutor Jeff Groharing, now a Justice Department attorney who got the case as a Marine major, sought on follow-up questioning to make clear that Interrogator No 1 was gleaning information from the Canadian for “actionable intelligence” in the Afghanistan combat zone – not for a future criminal prosecution.

Interrogator No. 1 said he wanted to know about the location of weapons and mines to assist the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. His intelligence reports at the time noted that Khadr had thrown a grenade that killed a fellow U.S. soldier but Interrogator 1 said he wasn’t seeking a confession.

He also said that he didn’t think the rape tale made Khadr any more cooperative or truthful and that he only started spilling al-Qaida secrets after U.S. troops went back to the scene of his capture in Khost, Afghanistan, and recovered a video of showing a young Khadr being taught how to assemble Soviet anti-tank mines.

Khadr, wearing the white uniform of a cooperative captive, watched the proceedings intently. Interrogator No. 1, in blue jeans and sporting a pony tail, testified by video hookup from Arizona. on a video monitor. Source

The New York-based American Civil Liberties Union condemned the Pentagon’s ruling as “absurd” and “nonsensical,” saying it would discourage reporting on the internationally condemned military commissions.

“No legitimate government interest is served by suppressing information that is already well known,” said Jameel Jaffer, the union’s deputy legal director.

“We strongly urge the Defence Department to reconsider its rash, draconian and unconstitutional decision to bar these four reporters from future tribunals.”

Carol Rosenberg, a reporter from the American newspaper, the Miami Herald, who has extensive experience covering the commissions, was also told she may not return.

Rosenberg declined to discuss the situation, referring calls to the Herald’s managing editor, who did not immediately return a call for comment.

The ban does not extend to the media outlets, only to the reporters involved.

However, media organizations themselves could be barred should there be “future violations,” the letter warns.

The letter also states the reporters can appeal the decision to the deputy assistant secretary of defence for media operations.

The hearings have wrapped up — it was not immediately clear when they will resume — and the media on the U.S. naval base were all expected to leave Friday.

Khadr’s trial — he is accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier and blinded another — had been due to start in July.

UN official calls for release of former child combatant from Guantanamo

5 May 2010 – A United Nations envoy today reiterated her call for the immediate release of the last child soldier still being held in Guantanamo Bay, voicing concern that his case has been brought to trial under a United States military commission and that he has been charged with war crimes.

Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was arrested in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was 15 years old. He has been in US custody for the last seven years, having spent much of his time in solitary confinement.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, called on the Governments of Canada and the US to respect the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and release Mr. Khadr into Canadian custody.

The Optional Protocol aims to increase the protection of children during armed conflicts. It requires that all States parties “take all feasible measures” to ensure that members of their armed forces under the age of 18 do not take a direct part in hostilities, and reminds nations that children under 18 are entitled to special protection and so any voluntary recruitment under the age of 18 must include sufficient safeguards.

Ms. Coomaraswamy today urged Canada and the US to treat Mr. Khadr as a child soldier and undertake efforts to rehabilitate him.

“Like other children abused by armed groups around the world who are repatriated to their home communities and undergo re-education for their reintegration, Omar should be given the same protections afforded these children,” she emphasized.

“Trying young people for war crimes with regard to acts committed when they are minors could create a dangerous international precedent,” the official warned. Source

The governor of Japan’s Kagoshima Prefecture has expressed his strong opposition against the proposed relocation of US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa to Tokunoshima Island.

Yuichiro Ito told reporters on Friday that he will oppose the relocation along with the residents of the island and the Kagoshima Prefectural Assembly.

He added that the government has not contacted the prefecture about the relocation. He also stressed that Tokunoshima residents do not want to accept a US military base.

The reaction comes as thousands of residents on Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture held a protest rally on Saturday after the island was reported to be a candidate site for hosting the contentious Futenma base in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture.

“The government has never consulted with any of the three mayors about the issue, even though it advocates the decentralization of authority,” said Tokunoshima Mayor Hideki Takaoka, as he criticized Tokyo’s disrespect for municipal governments.

The protest was organized by the municipalities and an organizing committee consisting of over 60 groups from Kagoshima’s Amami Islands.

“We cannot expose our children to noise and crime. We don’t need a base here on this island of children, longevity and mutual cooperation,” said a 39-year-old housewife.

Farmer Tokuhiro Motoda, 80, saw the matter as a threat to his way of life. “Tokunoshima is an island with rich nature and farming. Our living would be destroyed by the base,” he said.

A new survey conducted by the Sankei newspaper showed that more than 73 percent of respondents were unhappy with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s management of the issue.

Nearly half of the voters believe Hatoyama should resign if he fails to resolve the problem by the end of May as he himself announced the May deadline.

U.S. military bases cast shadow across Japan

March 5 2010

ATAMI, Japan – Muneyoshi Furugen has lived in the shadow of the U.S. bases on Okinawa all of his life. He speaks in a calm and deliberate manner with a small smile. Yet underneath, when he speaks of the impact of the bases on his family and on the Okinawan people, you glimpse anger and pain.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Furugen at the 23rd Congress of the Japanese Communist Party held in the Party’s beautiful convention center here, in January. It is located about 60 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Furugen is the leader of the Japanese Communist Party in Okinawa. I was impressed with the passion and militancy of his speech to the congress. We had a chance to talk during a break.

Furugen speaks to Americans

Furugen’s first vivid memory of the U.S. bases was when he was five or six years old. It was during the Korean War. The bases on Okinawa were used as staging areas for military strikes against North Korea. Thus security was a big concern and the U.S. military demanded a total blackout at night in all the neighborhoods surrounding the bases.

One night, Furugen remembers, his family forgot to turn out all the lights. The climate of fear was such that he remembers angry neighbors descending on his house to demand that the lights be turned off. “There was constant talk of enemy planes attacking us,” said Furugen. “For a young child it was a very scary thing.”

During the interview Furugen told me that he had felt compelled to bring the issue of the bases on Okinawa into sharp relief at the congress because of the presence of U.S. and other foreign guests. (Guests at the JCP Congress from the U.S. included Chris Townsend, political action director of the United Electrical Workers union; Erwin Marquit, editor of the journal, “Nature, Society and Thought”; and myself, representing the Communist Party USA.)

“I made my speech to make you aware,” Furugen said. “The people of Okinawa want me to explain the situation to you and the American people,” he said. “They want you to see the suffering of the people.”

Some background

Okinawa is the site of most of the U.S. bases in Japan. There are 38 U.S. military facilities on Okinawa. They account for 78 percent of the bases in Japan and use up 30 percent of the land mass of the island.

The U.S. military bases on Okinawa also cover over 40 percent of the arable soil, once some of the best agricultural land in Japan. Some, like Kadena Air Base, take up huge slices of the land in the middle of densely populated areas. Kadena Air Base takes up 83 percent of Kadena City and then sprawls across portions of Okinawa City and Chatan Town.

After World War II, Okinawa was administered by the United States. Self-administration didn’t revert back to Japan until 1972. Records through 1999 report 136 military aircraft accidents involving injury or death. Thirty-eight of these were airplane crashes, many in neighborhoods surrounding the bases.

Perhaps the worst such disaster was in 1959 when a U.S. jet plane from Kadena Air Base crashed into an elementary school and burst into a giant ball of flame. Eleven children were killed inside the school and six people in the neighborhood around the school died; 210 were injured. The crash also destroyed 17 houses and a community center.

Crimes against the Okinawan people by U.S. military personnel are also a big issue. Figures up to 1998 show that since 1972, 4,905 crimes were committed against Japanese people by U.S. military personnel, their dependents and U.S. civilian contractors and employees. More than 10 percent of these crimes involved serious crimes of murder, robbery or rape. In most cases the Japanese authorities were not allowed to arrest or question the alleged perpetrators.

Possibly the most famous case in recent times was in 1995, when three U.S. soldiers abducted and raped a young schoolgirl. This provoked massive protests. One demonstration drew a crowd of over 92,000, demanding the bases be removed and that the soldiers be turned over to the Japanese authorities for trial. This was never done.

Environmental fallout

Several Japanese and international environmental impact studies have raised the alarm about damage to the land, water and air caused by the U.S. military presence. For example, the constant live fire exercises conducted at Camp Hansen have caused major soil erosion and degradation.

The practice of firing live ammunition at the surrounding mountains has meant the destruction of topsoil protection. Not only has the erosion caused damage to the land, but drainage and refuse from the live fire exercises have led to the pollution of nearby Kin Bay. There are also serious issues of oil and toxic waste pollution from the bases.

At one facility, the Onna Communications Center, returned to the Japanese in 1995, serious high levels of PCBs and mercury have prevented use of the returned land.

Related to this is the severe problems of noise pollution caused by the military. Because the air bases, in particular, are located in heavily populated neighborhoods, the ongoing roar of jets and helicopters taking off and landing is a constant irritant.

A recent study at a primary school located just a half-mile from the runways at Kadena Air Base showed that classes were interrupted on average 10 times an hour, with deafening noise that lasted at least five seconds each time. This kind of noise is continuous, including throughout the night, making it difficult, if not impossible, for people to sleep.

Another major problem is that the bases hamper normal economic and infrastructure development. A case in point is the Futenma Marine Corps Air Base. It is located right smack in the middle of Ginowan City. The base takes up one-quarter of the city. Roads, sewer systems, power grids and water works have to be detoured around the base at great extra expense to the local government.

The airspace around and over the bases are controlled by the U.S. military and are closed to Japanese aircraft. Building codes around the bases are determined by the U.S. military. In one case a new apartment building had to be torn down because it was deemed too high and a hindrance to U.S. aircraft.

Many Americans also do not realize that the Japanese government bears most of the cost of maintaining the U.S. bases in Japan. This is a huge economic burden also on local governments.

Lastly, the U.S. bases have had an anti-democratic affect on the political life of Okinawa. The Okinawa People’s Party (the Japanese Communist Party in Okinawa) has gained great influence over the years because of its steadfast opposition to the U.S. bases and because of its support for sovereignty. The CIA has grossly interfered in the political process and undermined democracy by pouring large amounts of money into conservative candidacies and bankrolling efforts against the Party. It has also used money and influence, such as promises of economic aid, to try to change public opinion about construction of new bases.

Back to the interview

Furugen said that the U.S. war against Iraq has only made the situation with the bases on Okinawa more intense. After the horror of World War II, and the incredible terror of having suffered atomic bombs exploding on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese Constitution was written to include Article 9. This says that Japan and the Japanese people renounce “war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes.”

Even though the U.S. has constantly put pressure on Japanese governments to violate Article 9, an overwhelming majority of the Japanese people continue to support it. There is also a massive peace movement in Japan. Yet the last year has seen the U.S. bases on Okinawa used as a staging area for the U.S. war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Furugen named, in particular, the use of Kadena Air Base as a major refueling point for the air war in Iraq. He said that residents were aware and angry that the base was also used to stage the infamous “daisy cutter” superbomb and to deploy ordnance using depleted uranium.

Even as we sat in the interview, Furugen told me of protests going on across Okinawa and Japan against the deployment of Japanese Self Defense Forces (SDF) to Iraq.

“First the U.S. made us violate our own constitution years ago by creating the SDF, now they’ve put tremendous pressure on the government to actually deploy troops on foreign soil,” he said. “This is making people very angry.” Indeed many of the speakers at the JCP Congress expressed outrage at the deployment of SDF troops and reported on public protests.

Furugen said a big issue right now is U.S. plans to build a new state-of-the-art military base around Nago City. Under pressure to close bases and to return land to its rightful Japanese owners, the U.S. military has come up with a plan to shut a few obsolete facilities, while building a new, much larger single facility.

Unfortunately, the peace movement and the people there are also having to fight their own government on the project. The Liberal Democratic Party government is offering billions of dollars in economic assistance to try to bribe the people into allowing the new base. But so far the people and the peace movement have prevented construction since the proposal was first made in 1997.

I pressed Furugen for more about how the bases had affected him and his family. He told me another story from his youth that illustrates the dreadfulness of living with U.S. bases used for aggression and war.

When he was in high school one of his best friends was looking for work. They saw a local notice that a nearby base was hiring. The jobs advertised were offering exceptionally good pay. So they discussed it and his friend decided to apply. His friend came back in a state of shock. The job offered was to clean and wash the bodies of U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam, before returning them home to the United States.

Ending on a note of friendship

Furugen made it clear during our talk that he holds the U.S. government, the U.S. military, and some in the Japanese government responsible for the tragedy of the bases – not the American people.

“We have hope in the American people,” he said. He spoke proudly of all the exchanges and conferences between U.S. and Japanese peace groups. He said that many American Vietnam veterans came to Okinawa and participated in anti-war activities, including talking to current GIs about what’s wrong with keeping the bases.

Ending our talk with a warm handshake, Furugen said that Okinawa is a small island, a small part of Japan. But, he said, it is proud of its big role in fighting to make the country a center of peace and independence.

“I hope you will show our reality to the American people,” he said.

Scott Marshall is a national vice chair of the CPUSA and chair of its Labor Commission. He can be reached at scott@rednet.org.

On February 3, 2010, after a sham trial, the Department of Justice announced Siddiqui’s conviction for “attempting to murder US nationals in Afghanistan and six additional charges.” When sentenced on May 6, she faces up to 20 years for each attempted murder charge, possible life in prison on the firearms charge, and eight years on each assault charge.

In March 2003, after visiting her family in Karachi, Pakistan, government Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agents, in collaboration with Washington, abducted Siddiqui and her three children en route to the airport for a flight to Rawalpindi, handed them over to US authorities who took them secretly to Bagram prison, Afghanistan for more than five years of brutal torture and unspeakable abuse, including vicious beatings and repeated raping.

Bogusly charged and convicted, Siddiqui was guilty only of being Muslim in America at the wrong time. A Pakistani national, she was deeply religious, very small, thoughtful, studious, quiet, polite, shy, soft-spoken, barely noticeable in a gathering, not extremist or fundamentalist, and, of course, no terrorist.

She attended MIT and Brandeis University where she earned a doctorate in neurocognitive science. She did volunteer charity work, taught Muslim children on Sundays, distributed Korans to area prison inmates, dedicated herself to helping oppressed Muslims worldwide, yet lived a quiet, unassuming nonviolent life.

Nonetheless, she was accused of being a “high security risk” for alleged Al-Qaeda connections linked to planned terrorist attacks against New York landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge and Empire State Building, accusations so preposterous they never appeared in her indictment.

The DOJ’s more likely interest was her supposed connection, through marriage, to a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the bogusly charged 9/11 mastermind who confessed after years of horrific torture. US authorities tried to use them both – to coerce KSM to link Siddiqui to Al-Qaeda, and she to admit his responsibility for 9/11 — something she knew nothing about or anything about her alleged relative.

Her trial was a travesty of justice based on the preposterous charge that in the presence of two FBI agents, two Army interpreters, and three US Army officers, she (110 pounds and frail) assaulted three of them, seized one of their rifles, opened fire at close range, hit no one, yet she was severely wounded.

No credible evidence was presented. Some was kept secret. The proceedings were carefully orchestrated. Witnesses were either enlisted, pressured, coerced, and/or bought off to cooperate, then jurors were intimidated to convict, her attorney, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, saying their verdict was “based on fear, not fact.”

Awaiting her May 6 sentencing, Siddiqui is incarcerated in harsh maximum security solitary confinement at New York’s Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), denied all contact with friends and family, no mail or reading materials, or access to her previously allowed once a month 15 minute phone call to relatives.

Justice for Aafia Coalition (JFAC)

In February 2010, Muslim women in America, Britain, Canada, and Australia united in outrage over Siddiqui’s treatment and bogus conviction, demanding her release and exoneration.

March 28 was the seventh anniversary of her abduction, commemorated by a global day of protest, JFAC saying it was “to have events, demonstrations, letter-writing campaigns, khutbahs (sermons or public preaching), etc. in towns and cities all over the world in solidarity with Aafia” – for justice, against sadism and barbarity against an innocent woman, guilty of being a target of opportunity, not crimes she didn’t commit.

JFAC published a transcript of the March 26 Kamram Shahid-conducted Pakistan Front Line TV interview with Siddiqui family members, including her mother, Ismat, sister, Fowzia, and young son, Ahmed, who asked “why have they imprisoned her and why did they imprison me?” In response to whether he’d like to give his mother a message, he said:

“I love you and I am waiting for you (to) come back soon, if Allah permits.”

Ismat confirmed some of Aafia’s torture in shocking detail, saying:

She endured a lot, some of the worst of it including “six men… strip(ping) her naked. All her clothes would be removed. She told this to the Pakistani senators too, that they would strip her naked, then tie her hands behind her back, and then they would take her, dragging her by the hair. You cannot imagine the cruelty they have done to her. They would take her like this to the corridor and film her there.”

“After that, they observed that she would read the Qu’ran, from memory and from the book. They again would send six, seven men, who would strip her naked and misbehave etc. They took the Qu’ran and threw it at her feet and told her that only if you walk on the Qu’ran will we return (it) to you. She would cry and shout that she would not do it. Then they would beat her with their rifle butts so much that she would be bloodied. All her face and body would be injured. Then they used to pull out her hair one by one, just like this…. They threatened (to) take her to the court like this, naked.”

After “beat(ing) her so much that she bled… they made her lie on a bed. Then they tied her hands and feet – hands and feet both tied so that she (could) not even… scratch her wounds. Then they applied torture to the soles of her feet and head. They put her in some machines to make her lose her mental stability. They gave her such injections on the pretext of medical treatment.” When she pleaded not to do it, “they would make her unconscious and then give them to her. Such is (their) cruelty.”

“This epic cruelty – and look at (the) Islamic world…. They are all silent and making their palaces in Hell…. She was not even a criminal in their law. And she has done no crime. They did not accuse her of terrorism. She is not a terrorist.”

Her sister Fowzia said “It is all on tape. I am not making this up. They are sadists or whatever. All the strip searching was video-taped. (She called Aafia) a poster child for this torture and rendition,” one of many others brutalized in American prisons. Court testimony revealed that her children were also tortured, Ahmed later released on condition he say nothing, two still missing and presumed murdered. “I think even Genghis Khan did not do this,” said Fowzia.

In an August 2008 address to Pakistan’s Senate, Fowzia explained that “Aafia (can’t) get justice in the US…. They are sure to make her out to be a major terror figure to mask the five years of torture, rape and child molestation as reported by human rights groups.”

Her case is much more important than “my sister or one woman. Her torture is a crime beyond anything she was ever accused of (which was basically nothing) and this is a slap on the honor of our nation and the whole of humanity. The perpetrators of those crimes are the ones who need to be brought to account. That is the real crime of terror here.”

Fowzia appealed for Aafia’s extradition to Pakistan, despite little hope of expecting a government complicit in crime to cooperate beyond rhetoric. At first, it denied knowledge, then, after meeting with family, interior minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and other officials promised to work for her release, still denying complicity for what happened.

Because her ordeal sparked nationwide protests, Pakistan’s government is in damage control, apparently wants to shift blame to Washington, investigating officer Shahid Qureshi, in a report to the judicial magistrate, saying “FBI intelligence agents without any warrants or notice” committed the abduction — knowing full well about ISI’s complicity.

During confinement, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said Siddiqui had a kidney and her teeth removed. Her nose was broken and not properly set. Her gun shot wound was improperly treated. Reuters reported that she lost part of her intestines and still bleeds internally from poor treatment. Those around her notice she’s deathly pale because of extreme trauma and pain.

After years of horrific torture and abuse, a federal Bureau of Prisons psychological evaluation diagnosed her condition to be “depressive type psychosis” besides the destructive physical toll on her body.

World Outrage and Support

The Muslim Justice Initiative (MJI) said Siddiqui’s “recent guilty verdict… shocked and outraged masses across the globe” in announcing an April 2 online webinar discussion on her behalf, featuring her brother Mohammed, sister Fawzia, noted UK journalist and Siddiqui advocate, Yvonne Ridley, and Tina Foster, Executive Director of the International Justice Network (IJN). Information on the event can be found at muslimsforjustice.org.

On February 3, Siddiqui’s conviction date, IJN said the following:

It “represents the family of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in the United States,” its attorneys “monitoring her trial, which began on January 19 and ended with a guilty verdict today in US Federal Court in the Southern District of New York.”

Today marks the close of another sad chapter in the life of our sister, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. Today she was unjustly found guilty. Though she was not charged with any terrorism-related offense, Judge Berman permitted the prosecution’s witnesses to characterize our sister as a terrorist – which, based on copious (exculpatory) evidence, she clearly is not. Today’s verdict is one of the many legal errors that allowed the prosecution to build a case against our sister based on hate, rather than fact. We believe that as a result, she was denied a fair trial, and today’s verdict must be overturned on appeal.

Himself victimized by US torture, including at Bagram, author of “Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim’s Journey to Guantanamo and Back,” Moassam Begg (like others), called Aafia “the Grey Lady of Bagram because she (was) almost a ghost, a spectre whose cries and screams continue to haunt those who heard her.” So much so that for six days in 2005, male prisoners staged a hunger strike in protest.

After sentencing, her next journey may be to isolated life confinement in federal Supermax hell — according to the US Department of Justice National Institute of Corrections, intended for the most dangerous criminals, guilty of “repetitive assaultive or violent institutional behavior,” the worst of the worst who threaten society or national security.

Hardly the place for a woman called shy, soft-spoken, deeply religious, polite, studious, thoughtful, and considerate of others, especially persecuted Muslims being brutalized in America’s global gulag, courtesy of an administration that pays lip service to ending torture but practices it as sadistically as George Bush and the worst of history’s tyrants.

Nearly two of every three male juveniles arrested in Afghanistan are physically abused, according to a study based on interviews with 40 percent of all those now incarcerated in the country’s juvenile justice system.

The study, carried out by U.S. defence attorney Kimberly Motley for the international children’s rights organisation Terre des Hommes, reveals a justice system that subjects juveniles, many of whom are already innocent victims, to torture, forced confessions and blatant violation of their rights in court.

Motley, who may be the only practicing Western defence attorney in Afghanistan, told IPS that the study shows the need for alternatives to introducing juveniles into what she calls the “injustice system”.

The author personally interviewed 250 of the 600 juveniles in jails and rehabilitation centres across the country, including half the 80 girls and 40 percent of the 520 boys, as well as 98 professionals working in the system.

Although only two of the girls interviewed reported being beaten by police, 130 out of the 208 boys under the age of 18 interviewed said they had been beaten. The interviews were carried out by Motley in 28 provinces from September through December 2009.

Those statistics parallel the findings of a study published by the U.N. Children’s Fund and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission in 2008, which found that 55 percent of boys and 11 percent of girls reported having been beaten upon their arrest.

Virtually all the male juveniles said the police beatings were aimed at forcing them to sign a confession. They said they had signed either while being beaten or threatened with being beaten, and that the confessions were then used to convict them.

The testimony of the juveniles themselves on brutalisation by police was consistent with Motley’s interviews with juvenile court judges. Forty-four percent of the judges interviewed indicated that juveniles complained routinely about torture and physical abuse by police officers. Another 33 percent refused to answer when asked whether they had heard such complaints.

Many of the boys interviewed by Motley reported that they been beaten by several police simultaneously. In one case, a 17-year-old said he was “kicked liked an animal” by six or seven policemen after his arrest.

One juvenile charged with putting up signs around the city threatening terrorist acts told Motley that he signed a confession only after having been subjected to electric shock and hung from the ceiling by the National Security Police. The torture continued for more than two months, according to the boy.

The prosecutor in the case admitted to Motley that she had not only been aware of the accusations of torture but had seen marks on the boy’s body indicating that the confessions had indeed been obtained under torture.

The prosecutor further acknowledged that no witnesses or other evidence had been presented in support of the charges against the boy.

The judge in the case told Motley that when asked in court why the case had not been dismissed as required by Afghan law, the prosecutors admitted that it was because they were afraid of the National Security Police and felt they had no choice.

In addition to the male juveniles who had signed coerced confessions by their thumbprint, 24 percent of all the male and female juveniles interviewed told Motley they had signed confessions prepared by police without realising it until they had gone to court. In some cases, they were tricked into signing a blank sheet of paper which was then used for the confession.

Almost half the children brought before a court in Afghanistan are also denied the right to speak in their defence, according to Motley’s study. Forty-seven percent of those interviewed, including 62 percent of those in the western region, were not allowed to testify on their own behalf.

One of the male juveniles denied the right to testify in court was a boy charged with pederasty, or sexual relations between an adult male and a child. As is often the case, he was the victim of rape, after having been kidnapped by three adults, all of whom were released and never charged.

When the boy tried to explain in court that he was raped, however, he was told by the judge not to speak or even look at her, Motley recounts. The attorney for the child “barely spoke out for him,” and he was sentenced to five years in jail.

Motley also found, however, that 71 percent of the judges surveyed expressed the view that, if a juvenile remains silent in court when asked questions by a judge, they must be guilty.

Mohammad Ibrahim Hassan, a human rights activist in Afghanistan for two decades, told IPS the bias against presumption of innocence is deeply imbedded in Afghan culture. “A majority of the people in Afghanistan are against the presumption of innocence,” he said in a recent interview in Kabul.

In the Afghan justice system, he observed, “When they arrest somebody, they think you have to expect the worst punishment.”

A recent visit to the Kabul juvenile rehabilitation centre, on which this reporter was accompanied by Motley, further confirmed the prevalence of brutalisation of juvenile males by police.

In one the centre’s male dormitory rooms, which was chosen at random, the 10 juveniles present were asked through an interpreter how many had been beaten by police after their arrest.

Half of the boys raised their hands. One recalled having been subjected to electric shock in order to get him to sign a confession. “They put the cables on my toes and fingers,” he said, “and they turned on the electricity many times for a few seconds.”

He agreed to sign, and the police handed him a piece of paper on which to put his thumbprint.

Describing his treatment at the hands of the police, another boy said, “They would ask us, ‘have you committed this crime?’, and if we said no, they would beat us.”

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specialising in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, was published in 2006

Conditions are horrific, torture is common and police frequently rape female detainees, the U.S. State Department finds

By Paul Koring

March 12, 2010

Afghan prison conditions are horrific, torture is common and police frequently rape female detainees, the U.S. State Department finds in its annual survey of human rights.

The damning report paints a grim picture of scant respect for human rights by the embattled regime headed by President Hamid Karzai. While Taliban treatment of civilians is even worse, the report’s assessment of vile prison conditions and routine abuse and torture by Afghan police and security raises new questions about whether Canada and other nations are still transferring prisoners to known torturers. Doing so is a war crime under international law.

“Torture was commonplace among the majority of law enforcement institutions, especially the police,” the U.S. report found, citing the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, the group used by Ottawa to help monitor whether detainees transferred by Canadian troops are abused or tortured.

Canadian diplomats compile a similar annual report on selected countries – including Afghanistan – but it isn’t made public. Government censors blacked out all references to torture, abuse and extrajudicial killings by Afghan police and prison guards in the last available report obtained under Access to Information.

Yesterday’s U.S. report makes no similar attempt to shield allies from human rights scrutiny, even in places where U.S. troops are deployed.

Michael Posner, the U.S. undersecretary of state for human rights and democracy whose group prepared the mammoth report – generally considered the most authoritative annual assessment of conditions in more than 190 countries – said the issue of foreign troops being ordered by their governments to hand detainees to Afghan security forces was vexed.

“How can United States and NATO countries ensure or guarantee safe treatment or fair process when those transfers occur. … Those are issues very much on our minds,” Mr. Posner said.

The U.S. runs a prison facility at Bagram where more than 600 battlefield detainees are held. Some of them have been there for six years. But Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and other NATO countries with troops fighting in southern Afghanistan turn prisoners over to Afghan police and the Afghan internal security service (National Directorate of Security), usually within 96 hours. For years, no follow-up inspections were made to ensure transferred prisoners weren’t tortured or killed, but after publication of harrowing accounts of abuse, Ottawa added sporadic inspections.

Most Canadian detainees are turned over to the feared NDS. The U.S. report said it was impossible to determine how many prisons the NDS operates, or how many prisoners they contain. The report, which covers 2009, also noted that the Afghan government was making efforts to improve conditions in prisons.

Canada generally got good marks but the Harper government’s long-running effort to keep a Canadian citizen from returning home was cited. “In July the government complied with an order of the Federal Court of Canada and facilitated the return to Canada of Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Canadian-Sudanese dual national, after the Court determined that Canadian officials had been complicit in his detention in Sudan in 2003,” the report said.

******

TORTURE, RAPE, CHILD ABUSE COMMON

Excerpts from the Afghanistan sections of the U.S. government’s latest human rights report:

“Harems of young boys were cloistered for ‘bacha baazi’ (boy-play) for sexual and social entertainment …”

“Child abuse was endemic throughout the country, based on cultural beliefs about child-rearing, and included general neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, abandonment, and confined forced labor to pay off family debts.”

“Human rights problems included extrajudicial killings, torture, poor prison conditions, official impunity, prolonged pretrial detention, restrictions on freedom of the press, restrictions on freedom of religion, violence and societal discrimination against women, restrictions on religious conversions, abuses against minorities, sexual abuse of children, trafficking in persons, abuse of worker rights, the use of child soldiers in armed conflict, and child labor.” Source

NATO and the US have done a bang up job now haven’t they?

Life is worse for Afghans now then before the war. They also have a Heroin addiction problem as well. Even children get addicted to Heroin.

Poverty is up. Unemployment is up. Many have died and been maimed.

This all compliment of the the US and NATO.

Everywhere they go they leave behind a trail of death and horror.

They call the people defending their countries terrorists.

One has to think about who the real terrorists are.

To defend your homeland ans those in Iraq and Afghanistan did is not being a terrorist.

The invaders are the real Terrorist. The invader brings with them torture and mass murder.

This is a time line of one Rabbi who was allowed to continue his assault of children for years. ( #43 on the list below). This will give you and idea of how they are protected and can continue their abuse for years.

Australian police are seeking to extradite convicted child molester David Kramer, currently in jail in Farmington, Mo., on suspicion of having abused children at a Chabad school in Melbourne during the 1990s.

The 42-year-old rabbi not only raped the 16-year-old teen but also molested her 14-year-old sister and physically assaulted her 15-year-old brother. Name of perpetrator not given.

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Older Cases and there are a lot. Seems someone has been keeping a record of them all. I am not sure if all the links still are active.

If you find any newer cases please let me know and I will add them to the list. Just drop a note on one of the new posts. Every entry must be approved by me and I will never use your name.

Leave the name off the offender and the link to the news story.

August 3 2010 Update

I am sorry to say thehttp://www.theawarenesscenter.org Web site has been taken down. Not sure why. Could be they were hounded by the Lobby organizations and There are many. They hound the News media, Human Rights Organizations like Amnesty International and they hound Blogger’s as well as others. It doesn’t surprise me they have had their web site removed.

Case of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner (Beit El, Israel) (Two women accused the rabbi of creating emotionally intimate relationships with them. These relationships included his expressions of his love for them during regular late-night phone conversations, extracting details from them of their sexuality and promoting an unhealthy emotional dependence on him).

Case of Rabbi Jerry Brauner (Boro Park, Brooklyn, NY)(Convicted on the charges of Sexual Abuse-1st Degree and Sexual Abuse-3rd:Subject Another Person to Sex Contact Without Consent. He was sentenced to 11 years probation, with the condition he must participate in a sex offender treatment program. Brauner has been on probation since 2002 for the sexual abuse of a 15-year-old boy. On December 27, 2006, Jerry Brauner was arrested on charges of stealing a half-million-dollar home from a cancer-stricken woman, using a forged power of attorney to sell it and pocket the profits. Brauner is being held in lieu of $85,000 bail for lying about prior sex-abuse convictions when he applied for his notary’s license.)

Case of Rabbi Lewis Brenner (AKA: Lippa Brenner) (Brooklyn, NY) (Convicted of child molestation. The original charges included 14 counts of sodomy, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. He agreed to plead guilty to one count of sodomy in the third degree, a Class E felony, in exchange for a sentence of five years’ probation.)

Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks (Winnipeg, Canada, New York, NY) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Accusations about sexual inappropriate behavior with children started surfacing in the 1980’s. Rabbi Bryks is currently a member of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens. The Vaad is a Rabbinical committee that makes important decisions within an orthodox community.)

Case of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach (There is a Call for Action on this case. Accused of several cases of child molestation, and sexual assault of young adult women)

Case of Rabbi Gershon Freidlin (Colonia, NJ; Pittsburgh, PA; Washington, PA) (Rabbi Gershon Freidlin pleaded guilty to one count of child endangerment , saying he had touched the youth’s penis and buttocks while applying tanning lotion on the boy on July 10, 1995 Under the terms of a plea agreement, the rabbi will not be jailed for the crime, but faces up to five years probation.)

Case of Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg (St. Paul, MN) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Resigned as senior rabbi at Temple of Aaron, shortly after reaching an out-of-court settlement with a former congregation member who accused him of sexual misconduct. A criminal investigation into the case also is being closed, with no charges forthcoming).

Case of Rabbi David Kaye (Potomac, MD; Rockville, MD; San Antonio, TX) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Featured on “Dateline NBC” for seeking a sexual encounter with an underage boy in a chat room. NBC News conducted a sting in August, (2005) working with a group called “Perverted Justice.” Members of the group, posing as underage boys and girls, entered Internet chat rooms and waited for adults to engage them in conversations)

Case of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko (AKA: Joel Kolko, Yudi Kolko) – Yeshiva Torah Temimah (New York, NY) (Arrested in New York City on December 7, 2006 following a long-term police investigation. He was charged with four counts of sexual abuse, including two felony counts, and endangering the welfare of a child. The most recent sexual abuse was allegedly against an 8-year-old boy, who says he was abused while he was in the first grade during the 2002-03 school year.Rabbi Yudi Kolko and Yeshiva Torah Temimah were hit with a $20 million civil lawsuit on May 5, 2006, accusing him of molesting two students more than 25 years ago. One of the alleged victims said Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, 60, sexually assaulted him when he was a seventh-grade student).

Case of Rabbi Jerrold Martin Levy (Boca Raton, FL) (Convicted of two counts of soliciting sex through the Internet and two counts of child pornography. He was sentenced to six years and sex in prison. He was caught in the “Candyman” year-long sting operation by the US government.)

Case of Rabbi Samuel Mendelowitz – Licensed Marriage Counselor (Teaneck, NJ) (Accused of gross malpractice with four female patients between 1981 and 1992. He allegedly pressured women to remove their blouses and touched them sexually, engaged in masturbation and oral sex with one patient, and disparaged their husbands and urged them to have extramarital sex with what he called “surrogate lovers” male patients in his group sessions.)

Case of Rabbi Yaakov Menken (Baltimore, MD) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Serious allegations have been made against Rabbi Yaakov Menken which include sexual harassment, sexual misconduct and sexual assault. Menken’s alleged modus operandi (M.O.) is of becoming a father figure to vulnerable young women and eventually allegedly sexually assaulting them.)

Case of Cantor Howard Nevison (New York, NY) (Nevison pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of indecent assault, terroristic threats, simple assault, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children. Two felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse will be dismissed when Nevison is sentenced. A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.)

Case of Cantor Alain Oziel (New York, NY; Toronto, Canada) (Convicted on one count of indecent assault, gross indecency and attempted buggery during the period January 1, 1981, to December 31, 1982, of a teenage boy. He was sentenced to five years’ in prison. Oziel’s sentence was reduced due to his deteriorating health).

Case of Cantor Michael Segelstein (Las Vegas, NV) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Originally arraigned on one count each of attempted sexual assault, battery with intent to commit sexual assault and open and gross lewdness. On December 19, 2002, Michael Segelstein pled guilty to the lessor charges of open or gross lewdness, in which he received one year suspended sentence with conditions and court ordered into counseling. According to court documents, Segelstein’s probation was successfully completed. He has since been discharged. A civil suit is currently pending.)

Rabbi Ben Zion Sobel (New York, NY; Jerusalem, Israel) (“Rabbi Ben Zion Sobel is one of the most notorious pedophiles he has known, leaving hundreds of boys he has victimized. At one point Rabbi Shach made a rabbinic decree stating that Rabbi Ben Zion Sobel could NEVER teach again.” “Ben Zion has left survivors in both the United States and Israel.” “His modus operandi was extremely violent and barbaric.” )

Case of Rabbi Melvin Teitelbaum (Los Angeles, CA) (Charges dismissed at the request of the District Attorney’s Office, which conceded it had insufficient evidence to prosecute.Teitelbaum then a filed a $10-million damage suit in Los Angeles Superior Court. In his suit that the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, the Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles and the family that accused him conspired to have him arrested and charged.Later, confronted with evidence that placed Teitelbaum elsewhere at the time of the alleged incident, the siblings changed their story, a move the prosecutor said was “devastating” to their credibility.)

Case of Rabbi Mordecai Tendler (AKA: Mordechai Tendler) (Monsey, NY) (Accused of innappropriate sexual behavior with women in he counseled that had gone on for years. According to Rabbi Benzion Y. Wosner, head of the Shevet Levi rabbinical court in Monsey, One should never allow their wives or daughters to go to Rabbi Mordecai Tendler at all including [for] counseling… and all his rulings are null and void.” He also stated: “The RCA had every right to oust this rabbi from their organization, and his own congregation has the same obligation.” In conclusion, he wrote, “the rabbi can no longer officiate at divorces, weddings, etc.)

Case of Rabbi Hirsch Travis (Monsey, NY) (Charged with the sexual abuse of an unidentified 27-year-old female patient. He was also charged with posing as a Brooklyn doctor specializing in infertility problems, and illegally operating the Fertility Foundation in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn.)

Case of Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman (New York, NY) (Suspended from the Reform movement’s rabbinic organization because of sexual impropriety was later hired to a top position by a program that sends thousands of young Jews on free trips to Israel.. Sheldon Zimmerman was based in Cincinnati, OH, yet, also had responsibility for the Hebrew Union College’s campuses in New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA and Jerusalem, Israel .)

Case of The Zwi Migdal Society (Brazil, South Africa, India, China and Poland) (According to reports there were rabbis who were members of the society. From the 1860s to the beginning of the Second World War, thousands of naive, impoverished Jewish girls from eastern Europe were sold by Jewish mobsters into sexual slavery. This hugely profitable (annual revenues of $50 million in the 1890s) commerce in flesh was operated by the Zwi Migdal, a criminal association)

Case of The Unnamed Orthodox Rabbi (Quebec, Canada) (An undercover reporter posed as an employee of an escort service. One of her two clients included a Hasidic rabbi, who masturbated in a motel room while looking at pornography on television and at the reporter in her underwear.)

Case of Eugene Abrams (AKA: Eugene George Harris) (Long Island, NY; Miami, FL) (Convicted on 77 counts of child of rape, incest, sodomy and obscenity involving five young girls, including his own daughter. He spent 10 years in Attica State Prison. He was also convicted of running a nationwide child pornography ring on Long Island, He relocated to Flordia and was charged and convicted ofsexually assaulting a 4 1/2-year-old girl).

Case of Isa al-Natcha (Tel Aviv, Israel)(Convicted and sentence to 25 years for robbery, rape and false imprisonment, terrorized the women working at the brothels, raped them and stole money and possessions from them.)

Case of David Carl Arndt, M.D. (Boston, MA) (Charged with four counts of statutory child rape and one count each of indecent assault and battery, drugging a person for sexual intercourse, contributing to the delinquency of a child, and possession of the drugs ketamine hydrochloride (“Special K”) and methamphetamine).

Case of Robert Berezin (Brooklyn, NY; Skokie, IL) (Allegations were made that he entered the apartment of one of his tenents in the middle of the night, pushed her against the door, groped and forced his tongue into her mouth. When he was leaving, she said, he suggested she could provide sexual favors in lieu of rent).

Case of David Steven Berman (Ruislip, England) (Convicted and sentenced to prison. Berman admitted to 13 charges of making indecent images of children. Judge Jeremy Connor stated: “The images showed children as young as six, some with elements of sadism.”)

Case of Moni Biton (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted and sentence to sentenced to 22 years for purchased a stun gun, tear gas, knives and scissors, and decided in advance which brothels him and his friends would attack).

Case of Baron Bloom (London, England) (Convicted of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl. The judge ordered Bloom’s name to be placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years and sentenced him to one year’s imprisonment).

Case of Peter Braunstein (New York, NY) (Accused of drugging and molesting a woman for 13 hours. He entered her apartment by wearing a firefighter’s uniform, after allegedly setting small hallway blazes to trick his way into her apartment.)

Case of Lewis K. Cohen (AKA: Keith Cohen, Lewis Cohen) (Milwaukee, WI) (Convicted after being charged with using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime and child enticement-exposing sex organs. Cohen used his work and home computers to engage in sexually explicit conversations with a 14-year-old boy in Internet chat rooms. The complaint also charges that Cohen sent nude photographs of himself and other males to the boy via e-mail).

Case of Sliman Dawiri (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted and sentence to 28 years for robbery, rape and false imprisonment, terrorized the women working at the brothels, raped them and stole money and possessions from them).

Case of Lior Dekel (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Arrested after the girl told her school counselor of the rape. In the past, a court acquitted Dekel of rape charges against a 16-year-old girl due to lack of evidence.)

Case of Zora Flagashvili (Convicted of a gang rape and sodomy of a 20-year-old mentally disabled woman, and of confining her).

Case of Hbrandon Lee Flagner (Akron, OH) (Convicted of the kidnapping and aggravated murder of Tiffany Jennifer Papesh a 8-year-old girl. Flagner also claimed to have molested hundreds of girls during his life. While in prison, Flagner convert to Judaism by an Chasidic rabbi.)

Case of Leslie Griesdorf, DDS – Dentist (Toronto, Canada) (Received an 18-month conditional sentence after pleading guilty to accessing and possessing child pornography. Griesdorf was originially charged with making, importing, accessing and possessing pornography, plus obtaining the sexual services of someone under 18 years of age. This case involved the largest collection of child pornography in Canadian history.)

Case of Moshe Grots (Convicted of assisting in the rape and the confinement of a 20 year-old mentally disabled woman).

Case of Yoni Hovra – High School Teacher (Petah Tikva, Israel) (Arrested and charged with raping and sexually abusing 14 of his pupils. According to the charge sheet, Hovra slipped prescription sleeping tablets into the drinks of some male students who visited him at home, so that they would not be aware of the assault).

Case of Andrew Josephs – Hebrew Teacher (Parklands Court, Edgware, UK) (Charged with five counts of indecent assault, possession of indecent photographs of children, three of sexual assault of a child and two of abuse of trust between December 8, 2003, and August 4, 2004. Josephs, denies all the allegations and claims the boy’s have concocted their stories)

Case of Judge Ronald Kline (Turtle Rock, CA) (Molestation charges against former Judge Ronald Kline, were dismissed after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ban on the prosecution of old sex crimes. The original charges stated that Kline molested a 14-year-old boy in 1979).

Case of Leo Lewie (Beverly Hills, CA) (Convicted of murdering his wifeand his stepdaughter. Prior to the murders, there were allegations of two counts of child molestation and two counts of statutory rape).

Case of Marc Lewis – Tennis Coach (AKA Mark Lewish) (Edgware, England) (Convicted of sexual assault of a fifteen-year-old girl with two of his friends. Lewis is an award-winning Wimbledon tennis coach. Police were unable to charge the other men because they only discovered their identities 12 months after the alleged offences. In England, unlawful sexual intercourse cases the suspect has to be charged within a year of the offence. Lewis refused to name either man during police interview).

Case of Sergei Mayatski (Eilat, Israel) (Charged with of sexually abusing 13 year old teenager from Minsk, Belarus over the past three years. Mayatski admitted that he had sex with the teen, but said it was consensual and that it was partly done for educational purposes).

Case of Ephraim Ohana (AKA: Efraim Ohana) (Baltimore, MD) (There is a Call for Action on this case. A letter from the Vaad HaRabbonim of Greater Baltimore has been issued regarding Efraim Ohana which states that he should be refused entry into all synagogues and homes in the Baltimore community.)

Case of the Rogers Park JCC, (Chicago, Illinois) (This was the first case of alleged mass molestation recorded in Illinois to involve accusations of sexual abuse by a group of adults, consists of 246 allegations that staff members abused children enrolled at the center, according to the Illinois Department of children and Family Services).

Case of Tuvya Rokach – Monsey, NY; Brooklyn, NY; Toronto, Canada (Rokach with second-degree criminal sexual act, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of third-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.Rokach also is being investigated by police in Toronto, apparently where he had lived before coming to Monsey, police said).

Case of Kenneth Shackman (London, England) (Convicted, found guilty of 10 counts of indecent assault. He was sentenced to four-and- a-half years in prison for sexually abusing three young girls over 20 years ago. was found guilty of 10 counts of indecent assault.)

Case of Stanley D. Schwartz (Rockville, MD) (Convicted on molestation charges, after 15-year-old exchange student from Kuwait told detectives that Schwartz fondled him Aug. 27, 2008. Schwartz, who was acting as a surrogate guardian because the teenager’s host parents couldn’t take care of him that night. Similar allegations were made back in the early 1990’s, yet no charges were ever brought up against him).

Case of Zalman Silber (Monsey, NY; Borough Park, NY; Brooklyn, NY) (Arrested and charged with pretending to be a doctor and giving unsuspecting women “gynecological exams,”. Silber was charged with third-degree sexual abuse and unauthorized practice and professions for impersonating a doctor. He allegedly molested two women, ages 18 and 20. But police sources told the News that investigators believe he may have begun his activities in 2003.)

Case of Blake Sinrod – Teacher and Camp Counselor (West Boca Raton, FL) (Arrested and charged with molesting two students in his elementary classroom. It has been reported that there might be eight other victims as well. Sinrod faces five felony counts on charges. It appears that Sinrod targeted children of non-English-speaking parents so they would have a hard time reporting it.)

Case of Mark Anthony Wares (Hutchinson, Kansas) (Convicted of aggravated sexual battery and making a terrorist threat.(2) While on parole from these charges, he was convicted of kidnaping and aggravated battery. He is presently serving a sentence of twenty to forty-five years.)

Case of Jonathan Warrents (Newcastle, England) (Convicted on charges of gross indecency with an 11-year-old boy. Warrents had a previous sex offence conviction dating back 25 years. In January, 2006 Warrents was barred from saying Kaddish for his mother at Newcastle’s United Hebrew Congregation.).

Case of Joshua Adam Weinstein (Toronto, Canada) (Arrested and charged with two counts of sexual assault, four counts of sexual interference, and one count each of invitation to sexual touching and luring a child under 14 years of age (by Internet))

Case of Yeedle Werdyger – Chassidic Singer (Jerusalem, Israel) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Arrested for drugging teenage girls some of whom were below the age of 16, video tayping and then having sexual relations with them. Charges were dropped due to lack of evidence after Werdyger tried to swallow the memory disc of his computer, breaking the chip as he chewed it.).

Case of Yona Weinberg, MSW, LCSW (Brooklyn, NY)(Arrested after allegations were made of improperly touching several boys, aged 12 and 14. A two of the boys stated they were abused while Weinberg was assisting them with their religious studies at Khal Beth Abraham Congregation. Other victims include clients from Weinberg’s work as a licensed social worker for the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services.)

Case of Uriel Yitzhaki – Former Israeli Consul in Holland (Accused of sexually assaulting a female subordinate 10 years ago, during an earlier stint in the embassy in Holland. According to the complainant, she went to a casino one night with several other embassy employees, including Yitzhaki, and at some point, she went out to their car to fetch something. Yitzhaki then fell upon her, tore her clothes and tried to rape her, but she managed to push him off and escape.)

Case of Moshe Meshi Zahav (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of molesting adolescent girls who were runaways or in boarding schools. Allegedely the Zahav gave his alleged victims thousands of Shekels and expensive gifts, and then pressured them to have sexual intercourse with him).

Case of Kenneth Gribetz, District Attorney (Rockland County, NY) (Plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of defrauding the government in a deal he worked out with the U.S. Attorney. Although married, a father and grandfather, Gribetz was partly done in by his former mistress, who went to the media with information about him.)

Case of Rabbi Steven Jacobs (Los Angeles, CA) (Accused of Rabbinical Sexual Misconduct by congregants after learning Rabbi Jacobs was having an alleged affair with Anina Green, who was later murdered by her husband according to Michele Samit’s book, “No Sanctuary: The True Story of a Rabbi’s Deadly Affair” )

Case of Rabbi Gershon Winkler (Cuba, NM; Thousand Oaks, CA)(“Acknowledged that he fathered a child with a student, carried on several “intimate relationships” with students over the years and said he is currently in a relationship with two women.” Winklder also believes it is wrong to insist on an “across-the-board” ban on sexual relationships involving rabbis and followers, teachers and students, and counselors and patients.”)

A rabbi from northwest Britain has been accused of financing a drug-dealing business and offering cocaine to girls in exchange for sex, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported Wednesday.

Rabbi Baruch Chalomish, of Upper Park Road, Salford, is said to have rented an apartment where he could “relax and have a party”. Police raided the flat and discovered a total of 101 grams (3.6 ounces) of cocaine and more than £17,000 (about $28,567).

Samuel Arthur Silverman, also known as Abraham Cohen, was extradited Thursday from Israel to the United States. Silverman was convicted in Oregon for sexual abuse of minors in the late 1990s, but before a hearing on his sentence commenced he escaped to Israel.

This season’s hurricanes have made homes in Gonaïves, Haiti, unlivable, and conditions primed for environmental disaster will lead to more ecological refugees.

December 11, 2008
By Roberta Staley

Few are helping Haitians recover from natural disaster-and still fewer see the bigger problem

The drive north to Gonaïves from Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince is calculated in time rather than distance-it can take from three-and-a-half to five hours, depending upon rain and your four-wheel-drive’s suspension, to navigate the 150 kilometres of erosion-gnawed road that skirt the country’s coastline.

But nothing on the journey—not the cavernous potholes, trenches, or caved-in shoulders—prepares you for the apocalyptic dried-mud moonscape that is Gonaïves. More than two months after hurricanes Fay, Gustav, and Ike and tropical storm Hanna battered Haiti from August 17 to September 8, Gonaïves is barely better off than it was right after the tempests.

Mounds of dried mud cover city streets that United Nations tanks, motorcycles, and SUVs churn into thick dust that hangs like a grey-beige fog. Starving dogs, their vertebrae and ribs jutting through dry, pale hide, skirt among the wheels in a single-minded search for food, sometimes dragging limbs crushed by lurching vehicles.

The hurricanes skinned Gonaïves’s surrounding hills and mountains—denuded of trees for decades—as deftly as a taxidermist, allowing unfettered rivers of topsoil, clay, and water to submerge 80 percent of the city in goop more than a storey high. When the water evaporated, two-metre-deep mud remained. At least 466 people perished from August to September—more than double the number of people who were killed in the rest of the country. As of November, many of the surrounding rice, banana, and plantain fields were still flooded, as were homes on the outskirts of the city. (In total, about 70 percent of Haiti’s crops were wiped out, according to the United Nations’ World Food Programme.)

Bulldozers have started the cumbersome task of shifting tonnes of topsoil and clay from roadways, manoeuvring around overturned and crushed vehicles encased in mud like fossils. Some of the 300,000 residents who have returned to find the walls of their one- and two-room houses still standing are using shovels to dig out the thick, cracking earth, leaving chunks mixed with rotting trash outside doorways. But the homes are unlivable, and families dwell in tents on rooftops, leaving the city’s 40,000 female-headed households vulnerable to sexual predators. Too few trucks carry the mud away, and much of it is simply pushed into hills in the middle of intersections or along one side, creating a surreal version of a giant child’s sandbox.

But it is international apathy—as well as mud—that has Médecins Sans Frontières–Belgium (MSF–B) project coordinator Vikki Stienen so frustrated. Stienen, who is Dutch, arrived in Gonaïves in October, one month after the Nobel Peace Prize–winning NGO arrived to provide emergency medical care to hurricane survivors. MSF–B has managed—minimally—to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of citizens, creating a replacement water system and a new hospital as well as a mobile-clinic system serving the urban and rural populations still isolated by impassable streets and roads. A handsome, almost rakish, man with green eyes and a jagged front tooth, Stienen was given the task of creating a temporary replacement for the destroyed water and sanitation systems. With the water mains clogged with mud, MSF–B sends several tanker trucks of water every day from a deep well it drilled in September outside the city. The tankers drain chlorinated water into pipes that link to bladders, enormous canvas water containers that, in turn, are linked to communal taps scattered throughout the city.

With the project set to end January 15, the MSF–B team is working desperately to try to ensure the rudimentary water system is expanded and can be maintained by local government workers. However, with the city still blanketed by mud, it is impossible to create any sort of sanitation system, Stienen says. Without toilets, people relieve themselves in the street and behind the mud mounds, with the result that dried excrement mixes with the dust-laden air. Rebuilding the sanitation system is dependent upon all the mud being cleared away, a task that could take a year, Stienen says.

MSF–B feels isolated and overwhelmed by the need; MINUSTAH, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, should be doing more, Stienen says. “You don’t like to bash the UN, but we had a coordination meeting and you would think they were talking about something else,” says Stienen, leaning back, loose-limbed, in a white plastic chair in the shade, dressed in wide-leg linen pants, brightly coloured loose shirt, and red flip-flops in the more than 30 ° C heat. “Other NGOs and the UN, you see their reaction and it’s as if they don’t care. Where does this apathy come from? Why are they so indifferent?”

Before the hurricanes, most of Gonaïves’s 300,000 citizens obtained their water from about 5,000 communal wells. However, these are also contaminated with mud and must be cleaned out and fitted with new pumps, something MSF–B is also trying to do before it withdraws. “Normally,” Stienen says, “this would be the World Health Organization who would do this, but they’re not here either.”

Stienen is especially worried by the UN’s apparent inability to ensure the safety of the citizens of Gonaïves. The incidence of rape is so high among women, perched on roofs with their children in the dark, that MSF–B has added a psychologist to its mobile clinic to provide trauma counselling. “You ask them, ‘How long will you sit on your roof?’ They say, ‘We are forgotten by the government and the UN,’ ” Stienen says. “This is not security, to sit on the roof with no electricity. So it adds to my question: ‘Is the government and UN taking it seriously?’ ”

Stienen muses that what lies at the root of international apathy is simple cynicism over Haiti’s propensity for disaster. Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, weathered a severe storm four years ago when hurricane Jeanne killed about 3,000 people. Foreign aid rebuilt the water and sanitation system in Gonaïves and the international community faces the obligation of rebuilding it once more. Once it’s constructed, it is only a matter of time before more hurricanes destroy it again. “People say Haiti is complicated, but this is not a reason not to care,” Stienen says. “Maybe that’s where the apathy comes from, because this country is unmanageable.”

Brazil’s Maj.-Gen. Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz, force commander of MINUSTAH since January 2007, addresses the question of security several days later in an interview in Port-au-Prince. In Gonaïves, the main task of the local UN force, which consists of about 500 Argentine and Pakistani troops as well as local police, is to maintain a safe environment, but “in practice we keep the stability through support of the local police,” Santos Cruz says.

During the hurricanes, he says, UN troops threw themselves into humanitarian assistance: evacuating patients from La Providence Hospital (a once-pretty white-and-green facility, renovated after the 2004 hurricane, that is now mired in dried, grey muck), saving the medicines, and assisting birthing women. Now, Santos Cruz says, the main focus is guarding the warehouse where supplies are stored for the World Food Programme (WFP), which allocated US$33 million for emergency food supplies at the beginning of September. (Only one-third of this amount has been forthcoming from member states.) However, Stienen condemned a decision by the WFP to stop distributing food after fights broke out at a depot weeks after the hurricanes. The WFP cited mismanagement of the depots and a lack of safety as reasons for stopping distribution. WFP Haiti spokesperson Hilary Clarke says that the UN organization still managed to deliver food to women staying in shelters in Gonaïves.

Regular food distribution has resumed, Clarke says, and virtually all of Gonaïves’s citizens are receiving food packages every two weeks containing such staples as rice, beans, and oil, most of it imported from the United States. Still, some children have sickened from lack of food and show signs of protein starvation, called kwashiorkor: reddish, thinning hair; enlarged abdomen; sad, sagging faces; stick-thin arms and legs; and edema so severe it cracks the skin. At MSF–B’s new Hôpital Secours Gonaïves, built in a warehouse once used by the humanitarian group CARE, 15-month-old Cindjina sits on the lap of her mother, Thelse Almonur, in the pediatric ward. Cindjina was 5.9 kilograms, the average weight of a two-month-old, when she was admitted September 27. Thelse is feeding her daughter a peanut-butter paste mixed with vitamins. The paste has helped Cindjina gain weight and, six weeks later, she is up to 6.5 kilograms, still four kilograms below the average weight for her age.

Generally, about one-third of children in Haiti suffer from chronic malnutrition. However, a recent survey by the aid organization Action Contre la Faim showed the malnutrition level in Gonaïves to be about four percent, due in large part to the large-scale food distribution, Clarke says.

Stienen shakes his head. “In Gonaïves, you see more than chronic malnutrition. It is a weakened population, with the most vulnerable being the children. Those families with four to five children, they suffer the most.”

The future does not look promising for Gonaïves’s people. National food shortages have put the country in a “highly volatile situation”, according to the WFP’s Bettina Luescher, speaking from her UN office in New York City. The WFP is planning to begin phasing out food distribution in Gonaïves in 2009 to “avoid creating a context of assistance and food dependency”.

Some people think that a simple solution to this enormous problem would be to move Gonaïves, which sits below sea level at the confluence of three rivers, to higher ground. Stienen laughs humourlessly at the notion; this will never happen, he says. There are neither sufficient resources nor the political will to relocate 300,000 souls up the steep, bare, infertile, erosion-prone hills and mountains.

What lies at the root of this dilemma? Environmental degradation caused by the wholesale cutting of trees. A century ago, Haiti was a tropical rainforest with huge stands of mahogany. However, 20th-century exploitation by foreign corporations and the Haitian government’s need to service an egregious national debt owed its former slave-owning colonial master, France, meant that much of the forest cover was felled for cash. Now only 1.5 percent of the country is forested, according to the UN—a sharp contrast to the lush Dominican Republic, a country adjoining Haiti on the same West Indies island.

But the people of Haiti are also responsible for deforestation. The majority of Haiti’s 9.5 million people rely upon charcoal for cooking; most electricity is privately generated and there is no gas or kerosene. Charcoal is made by cutting down a tree, leaving it to dry in the sun, then slowly cooking it in a makeshift kiln. In an effort to preserve the life of the tree, the stump is left, with the hope it will send out shoots. This woeful attempt at silviculture is largely unsuccessful. In the area around Gonaïves, Stienen says, there are fewer trees than there were in 2004.

The string of environmental disasters experienced by Gonaïves, as well as other places around the world, is giving rise to a world phenomenon: ecological refugees. Rising sea levels and more destructive cyclones and hurricanes that experts link to global warming, as well as widespread deforestation and erosion, have created populations of desperate people fleeing disasters. In Gonaïves, for example, Stienen estimates that there are only 10,000 male-headed households, one quarter the number of female-headed families. The rest of the men have fled to other countries for jobs and a more secure life. However, their families cannot follow and are left to carry on a life of struggle and, possibly, worse hunger than they face now.

But fleeing can be as dangerous as staying. No one knows this better than 22-year-old Timanit Cherisma. Cherisma lies silent on her side in the obstetrics ward of the MSF–B hospital, an intravenous drip in one arm. Just an hour ago, Cherisma gave birth to twin girls. But there is no joy in the room, and the only sound is muted mewing, like new kittens, from the twins, bound in a blue blanket on a cot. The father of the infants died after his boat capsized while he was fleeing Haiti to try to find work in the Bahamas. The twins have no home to go to—it was washed away in the flood. “I see no hope for the babies,” Cherisma’s mother, 48-year-old Tazilia Esenvile, says in Creole.

Back in Port-au-Prince, a handful of courageous people are making an 11th-hour attempt to turn back the tide of total environmental degradation in Haiti, which, at 27,750 square kilometres, is about three-quarters the size of Vancouver Island. The Fondation Seguin was cofounded in 2004 by Serge Cantave to try to save the country’s last remaining pockets of natural forest and to educate teachers and youth about conservation. Through its Ecole Verte program, a sense of responsibility toward the environment is also being cultivated when students travel to mountain regions to plant trees. To date, 30,000 trees have been planted by students, says Cantave, whose organization is financially supported by the development organization Yéle Haiti, headed by Haitian-American hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean.

Without reforestation, Haiti will simply wash away into the ocean. “It will disappear,” says Cantave, who estimates it will take a century of dedicated tree-planting to reverse the clear-cutting. The way this can be achieved, Cantave says, is for the Fondation Seguin to work with an international network of ecological groups. Cantave looks to British Columbia, which has spawned generations of dedicated environmentalists, for help in coordinating tree-planting programs and educating Haiti’s young. “We are asking you to share with us your experiences,” Cantave says. “We are begging the international community for support.” (Another organization, the Lambi Fund of Haiti, which is allied to Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize–winner Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement, has plans to plant one million trees.)

Haiti, despite the meagre streaks of green across its topography, is important internationally for its unique biodiversity: it is a potential source of medicinal plants and a key resting and feeding place for migrating birds, Cantave says. For example, Canada’s black-throated blue warbler, which breeds in southeastern Canada but winters in the Caribbean, stops in Haiti’s Parc National La Visite, a 2,000-hectare oasis. (Haiti’s national parks include Sources Puantes, at 10 hectares; Sources Chaudes, 20 hectares; Forêt des Pins, 30,000 hectares; Sources Cerisier, 10 hectares; and Fort Jacques et Alexandre, which is only nine hectares.)

Some support has been forthcoming. The German international-cooperation enterprise Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit recently donated about $800,000 to the Fondation Seguin for a special project to plant 120,000 fruit, evergreen, and spice trees, as well as pasture grass to retain the soil. Cantave says the project is married to economic and infrastructure development for surrounding subsistence farmers to encourage them to support reforestation efforts.

Is Haiti doomed to be a country of no hope? Many, it would seem, despair that Haiti’s political, economic, social, and ecological wrongs will keep it in a state of desperation that will never be overcome. Yet if history has proven anything, it is that human will is an unstoppable force. People like Stienen and Cantave, with their sense of moral outrage, are an inspiration to the rest of the world to show the will to help Haiti overcome the myriad of problems afflicting its beleaguered people.

War, ethnic conflict and greed have turned the lush green jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) into one of the most hellish places on Earth.

Lawlessness is rife, massacres are common, theft is systematic, all-pervasive and violent. But for Dr. Denis Mukwege, it is the daily horror of rape and sexual violence to women that are without precedence anywhere.

“The traditional battlefield has changed,” he says. “It is no longer war on the ground, but it is war on women’s bodies. It is a war that destroys women as human beings.”

“Rape and sexual violence are now used as a war strategy,” he says. “It is a tactic of war. It is not rape as understood by many parts of the world, as a violation of the rights of a human being. It is rape used as a weapon of mass destruction.”

The director and founder of the 250-bed Panzi General Referral Hospital in the eastern Congo town of Bukavu, Dr. Mukwege has devoted the last 14 years to treating women who suffer from the most brutal types of rape, sexual torture and mutilation.

“It is sexual terrorism that seeks to destroy the identity of the individuals and their communities,” he said. “Whole communities are raped. It is not merely a physical destruction but the psycho-social destruction of a whole community in which the women are humiliated.”

“They force sons to rape their mothers, fathers to rape their daughters, husbands to rape their wives in the presence of children. It’s aimed to destroy the social fabric of a family and a community.”

Since 1999, Dr. Mukwege’s hospital and its team of six surgeons have surgically reconstructed the bodies of women whose genitals and internal organs have been horribly disfigured in violent sexual attacks.

In the Congo’s brutal civil war, sexual assault victims are three times more common than gunshot casualties and five times more numerous than wounded soldiers.

Sexual violence has become a war within a war.

The Panzi Hospital treats 3,500 rape victims a year and it still can’t cope with the surge in shattered lives that follows each round of warfare in eastern Congo.

Earlier this week aid workers working in the DRC appeared before the UN Security Council in New York pleading with the United Nations to beef up its peacekeeping operations to do more to protect women and children from sexual violence and exploitation in Congo.

“Women and girls in the hundreds and thousands have been targets of opportunistic and brutal rape, while children are being targeted for recruitment as child soldiers,” said Sue Mbaya, the Africa policy director for World Vision. “There is a silent war being waged against women and children.”

“The words rape or sexual violence cannot fully translate the horror I see hundreds of thousands of women living through,” said Dr. Mukwege, who spoke recently at a special forum at the University of Toronto along with Stephen Lewis, the former UN Special envoy for AIDS/HIV in Africa.

The Republic of Congo is set to launch a national campaign against HIV/AIDS on Monday to add to the global momentum in fighting the deadly disease.

With a theme of “shut the doors of our families against HIV/AIDS”, the national council for the fight against the disease known as CNLS focuses on family actions in a bid to reduce the risks for the vulnerable in the country.

CNLS executive secretary Marie-Francke Puruhence announced the month-long health drive on Sunday on the eve of the World AIDS Day.

The country has launched a variety of anti-HIV/AIDS activities, including meetings of citizens, conferences at the ministerial level, medical check operations on the basis of volunteers, as well as training and education on the prevention and control of the disease.

According to a survey released in 2003, there were 120,000 patients suffering from AIDS in the Republic of Congo, more than 3.1 percent of the country’s 3.86 million population. As many as 78,000 orphans were registered as a result of the disease.

The survey also indicated that up to 95 percent of the patients had been affected through sexual activities, 3 percent of the cases through the mother-to-child infection and 2 percent through blood transfusion.

The UN’s special envoy to Congo chided the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DR Congo) main rebel leader during a second round of peace talks for breaking a ceasefire, video footage taken inside the closed-door meeting showed.

The footage, taken by the UN and made available to journalists, shows an angry mediator, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, berating rebel leader Laurent Nkunda for starting an offensive along the border with Uganda last week, thus breaking a ceasefire in the middle of peace talks.

Since the first round of peace talks on Nov. 16, Nkunda’s forces have clashed with the army several times, and rebels captured two border posts and a town last week.

“You are making me a laughingstock,” Obasanjo told a seated Nkunda.

“What has happened in the last 14 days has not made me happy,” Obasanjo said on Saturday, adding, “If there is anything that will make you make a move against a self-imposed ceasefire by you, you should let me know. When I finished my first round of talks, I reported to you. You haven’t built the same confidence in me and I feel disappointed.’

Nkunda threatened all-out war if the government does not hold talks with him, reports said yesterday.

After the meeting, Nkunda said the government had no choice but to talk.

“If there is no negotiation, let us say then there is war,” the BBC reported Nkunda as saying late on Saturday. “I know that [the government] has no capacity to fight, so they have only one choice — negotiations.”

Nkunda said that Obasanjo should mediate the talks, which he wants to take place in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

Fighting between Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) and government forces exploded into full-scale conflict in October when the rebels came on the verge of taking Goma, the capital of the eastern North Kivu Province.

More than 250,000 civilians have been displaced since August, aid agencies said.

Nkunda called a ceasefire and pulled his troops back from the front lines last month after meeting Obasanjo.

Despite the ceasefire, clashes have continued with government forces and the pro-government Mai Mai militia.

Nkunda’s men on Thursday seized the border town of Ishasha, about 120km from Goma, forcing over 15,000 refugees to flee to Uganda.

Civilians caught between the warring forces have suffered atrocities at the hands of all parties, the UN said.

There have been repeated reports of rape, looting and murder by the CNDP and government forces.

The UN has agreed to send another 3,000 troops to bolster the 17,000-strong peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, known as MONUC. The peacekeepers are hopelessly overstretched by the conflict.

Nkunda has warned several times he will march on the capital Kinshasa if the government does not address his grievances.

The rebel general says he is fighting to protect Tutsis from Hutu militias who fled to DR Congo after Tutsi forces seized power in Rwanda.

The armed Hutu groups were implicated in the 1994 massacres in Rwanda, when 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

However, the DR Congo government has so far refused to talk to Nkunda and accused Rwanda of backing him.

There are fears the conflict could reignite the 1998-2003 war, which UN agencies say caused the deaths of over 5 million people in DR Congo.

1.Keep your car in good working order and gas tank at least half full. Make a practice of filling up your vehicle during the daylight hours. Never let it get so low that you are forced to stop for fuel, particularly at night in an area with which you are unfamiliar.

2.Always have your keys out and ready before leaving a building to approach your car. Fumbling through your purse for keys after you’ve reached your car provides criminals with an opportunity to sneak up on you.

3.Look around and in your car before entering. If you are concerned for any reason, simply walk past your car instead of getting into it.

4.Lock your car door immediately after entering the vehicle. Make this your first action – even before putting the key into the ignition.

5.When stopped in traffic keeps doors locked as usual and leave yourself enough distance from the vehicle in front of you should a criminal attempt to walk alongside your vehicle and gain entry or attack you.

6.Park in well lighted areas and lock the doors, even if you’ll be gone a short time. Check your surroundings before getting out of your car. If something or someone strikes you as out of place or threatening, drive away.

7.When you return to your car, have the key ready and check the front and rear seats and floors before getting in.

8.If you are accosted in a parking lot, away from your own vehicle, consider rolling underneath a nearby auto. It is difficult to force anyone out from under a car.

9.If an attacker does manage to get into your car while you are in it, do everything in your power to exit the automobile. If you are still behind the wheel, steer your vehicle into a barricade, a pole, a wall — any object that will create a minor accident. Take advantage while your attacker’s attention has been diverted and exit the automobile. Run, yell, scream. Attract attention.

10.Don’t stop to assist a stranger whose car has broken down. Instead, help by driving to the nearest phone and calling police to help.

11.If you get a flat tire, drive carefully on it until you reach a safe, well lighted and well traveled area. If necessary, better to ruin a tire than gamble with your safety.

12.If you are involved in an accident, stay in your car until police arrive. In minor accidents where the other driver suggests you exchange insurance information, simply hold up your driver license and insurance card against the window.

13.If you are being followed, don’t drive home. Go to the nearest police or fire station and honk your horn. If that is not possible, drive to an open gas station or other business where you can safely call the police. DO NOT leave your car unless you are certain you can get inside the building safely. Try to obtain the license plate number and description of the car following you.

14.If possible, have a cellular phone in your car for use in emergencies.

1.Always be alert to your surroundings and the people around you. Walk confidently and at a steady pace.

2.When on the street, walk facing oncoming traffic. A person walking with traffic can be followed, forced into a car, and abducted more easily than a person walking against traffic.

3.Walk close to the curb or on the sidewalk. Avoid doorways, bushes, and alleys.

4.Don’t walk alone at night and always avoid areas where there are few people.

5.Be careful when people stop you for directions. Always reply from a distance, and never go too close to the car. Stay far enough away from the car that you can turn and run easily. An alternative is to simply state, “I don’t know” and keep walking.

6.If you feel you are being followed, walk to a well populated area.

7.If you are in trouble, attract help any way you can. Scream, blow a whistle or yell for help.

8.Trust your instincts. If a particular place, person, or group of persons make you feel uneasy, go a different direction, do not approach.

2.Do not accept a drink from anyone you would not “put your life into their hands.” Remember, any stranger or casual acquaintance could be suspect. Even those people who are mixing or pouring drinks.)

3.If you are feeling sick or dizzy while out socially, go to someone you KNOW and TRUST. If there is no person you can talk to about your condition, call someone on the phone. Never leave alone. NEVER. (The intent of date rape drugs is to get you isolated and then to assault you.)

4.If you think you have been drugged and cannot tell or call someone, call 911. A blood sample can be collected and appropriate tests run.

5.Remember, alcohol greatly increases the effects of these drugs. The mixture could be lethal.

Why Rohypnol, GHB and Ketamine are used in Date Rapes:

1.They are easy to administer. (Stir and dissolve)

2.When victims feel the effects, they often leave and are caught alone and vulnerable.

3.If victims ‘come to’ during an assault, the drugs render them totally helpless and unable to do anything.

4.When victims are raped, they doubt their experience because of the impaired memory of it.

2.It may be more advisable to submit than to resist. You will have to make this decision based on the circumstances. Be especially careful if the attacker has a weapon.

3.Keep assessing the situation as it is happening. If one strategy does not work, try another. Possible options, in addition to non-resistance, are negotiating, stalling for time, distracting the assailant and fleeing to a safe place, verbal assertiveness, screaming to attract attention and physical resistance.

4.Stay alert and observant so that you can better describe the attacker and the assault to the police.

5.If forced to get into a vehicle, your life is in danger, so resist at all cost. Attract attention, cause a disturbance or try to disable your suspect, but DO NOT get into the vehicle. Scream, gouge his eyes, kick or knee him in the groin, stomp on his feet, use your elbows. Fight like you never have before. This is the fight for YOUR life and it could become your last one.

Movie theaters cut out the racy scenes from the “Sex and the City” movie. Radio stations change James Blunt’s “Beautiful” song lyrics from “I’m fucking high” to “I’m flying high.” Theme parks blur pictures taken during rides because someone gave the camera the finger. Censorship has even infested courtrooms.

Nebraska Judge Jeffre Cheuvront prohibited prosecutors and witnesses from using the words, “rape,” “sexual assault,” “assailant” and “victim” during Tory Bowen’s alleged rape trial, according to 2008 People magazine and Associated Press articles.

Censorship isn’t a power given to judges – it’s an abuse of power in itself.

Bowen’s alleged rapist got off on a mistrial – twice. Perhaps it was because juries at censored trials aren’t notified of judges’ restrictions.

Or perhaps it was because Bowen had to take long pauses so she didn’t violate the judge’s order, thus appearing unsure of herself during her 13-hour testimony. In the end, Bowen took her fight to the Supreme Court, but the justices refused to hear her case last week.

Unfortunately, Bowen’s trial isn’t an isolated case. According to the People magazine article, every state has similar legal principles. In California and Utah, prosecutors aren’t allowed to say “victim” during criminal trials.

What else are they suppose to call them?

According to Merriam-Webster, a “victim” is “one that is subjected to oppression, hardship or mistreatment.” People who’ve been raped undeniably fall under that definition.

Insert “alleged” here. Did those countless years at law school teach defense attorneys nothing? They can say “alleged victim.” Duh.

Censorship is a slippery slope. If the prosecutors can’t say “assailant,” what about “aggressor,” “assaulter,” “goon” or “bushwhacker”? The aforementioned words are all synonyms, so shouldn’t judges ban those terms as well?

If you’re ever raped, forget the law – study the thesaurus. It’ll be your best weapon if you decide to go to court.

In Bowen’s case, Cheuvront permitted the accused and the defense attorneys to call the alleged rape “sex” and “intercourse.”

Perhaps “sex” and “intercourse” aren’t complete opposites of “rape” and “sexual assault,” but they are definitely not synonymous with each other. So why are defense lawyers allowed to substitute the terminologies?

Say “alleged rape” if you want, but call it what it is and in most cases, that isn’t “sex.”

Besides, if we strictly adhere to the law’s so-called rationale, then we could say that thieves only take what they need and that murderers send the dead to a better place. Murderers are population controllers and thieves are Goodwill employees – minus the tax write-offs.

Even if you could disregard the fact that this, like all censorship, is a First Amendment violation, it’s a clearly unfair legal practice.

In a 2007 Slate magazine article, Dahlia Lithwick wrote, “It’s precisely because language is so powerful in a courtroom that we treat it so reverently.” Reverently, yes. Justly, no.

The question of fairness should apply to both the accused and the accuser in all criminal trials.

This could be on a Snapple bottle cap: Did you know that most societies still don’t understand rapes?

If they did, they would deal with rapes the same way they deal with robberies and homicides. The fact that most courts don’t even give the words equal treatment speaks volumes about modern societies’ outdated perception of rapes.

However, the argument for censored trials is that words, such as “rape kit,” are “unfairly prejudicial to a defendant,” according to the same articles.

Following that reasoning, judges should censor the defendants from saying “sex” and “intercourse” because those words are unfairly prejudicial to the victim.

“Sex” and “intercourse” imply consent, which isn’t always the case and is often tricky to determine, especially if the victim was intoxicated.

That’s why we have jurors – all 12 of them. They’re smart enough to be registered voters, so they can certainly sift through evidence. If the judge has trust issues, then a viable alternative to censorship would be jury instruction.

Censorship is blind. It has crossed the line without even realizing it.

To the enforcers of censorship, draw a line. It doesn’t need to be straight.

On behalf of Tory Bowen and other women like her, I cry, “Rape.”

To the judges who rape the victims all over again, take a good look at my middle finger.

I think what was done by the judge is to say the very least appalling. Rape is an act of violence nothing less and should not be censored especially in a court room. If they want to censor anything how about the on line porn sites, there are thousands upon thousands of them and many actually promote rape. Tory deserved a fair trial and obviously didn’t receive it. Rape is Rape. It is a horrid crime. She is a victim. “Victim” isn’t a dirty word.

What about Free Speech? I guess that only applies to criminals or hate groups like the KKK or Skinheads. The rest of Americans especially victims are not granted the same right obviously. Rape victims have been re victimized for years and this practice should be stopped. Justice should be for all, including “VICTIMS”.

How sad that anyone like Tory, should have to censor her testimony to suit the judge or the state.

They should be able to tell the truth as it happened.Rape reported on campus; sixth of semester
November 4 2008

By Matthew Kimel and Andrea Frainier
The sixth reported rape case at San Jose State University of the Fall semester was filed on Oct. 24, according to the University Police Department media log.

The latest report occurred on the sixth floor of Campus Village Building C, according to two of the reported victim’s roommates.

“She brought up two guys, and she didn’t know them,” said one of the reported victim’s freshman roommates.

The roommates said the two men were first brought into their suite by the reported victim around 9 or 10 p.m. on Oct. 22, and the incident occurred around midnight or 1 a.m. Oct. 23.

“We were (present) but we didn’t hear anything,” said one of the roommates who was informed of the incident at the UPD station the next day.

UPD Sgt. Mike Santos said there have been no found links to any of the six reports this semester.

“The main connection,” he said, “is that all but one are alcohol-related and have occurred in the dorms.”

Santos said the case is still under investigation and no arrests have been made.

Meeghan Harrington, resident life coordinator in Campus Village Building C, said she was not allowed to comment on the situation that occurred in her building. She said University Housing Community Relations Coordinator Kevina Brown was the spokesperson for the situation.

Brown said she could not comment on the situation and anything that “regards to sexual assault should be deferred to University Police.”

Brown, however, said efforts are being made to make sure the assaults don’t continue.

“I would suggest (students) use a buddy system and have someone with them at all times,” Brown said. “We’re really trying to get the word out that students should protect themselves.”

Santos said a safety alert was sent to housing after the third or fourth report was taken for students to become “aware of what’s going on around them.”

Students in Building C were not given a direct notice of the safety alert.

The alert has been posted on a bulletin board and within the elevators.

“I saw some in the elevators,” said one of the reported victim’s roommates, “but there’s not any in the dorm’s hallways or stuff like that.”

Brown said the recent assaults are not “far out of the ordinary from what we have seen in the past.”

“It’s an unusually high number,” she said. “I don’t know if I would say it alarms me, but we want to do anything we can do to make sure it doesn’t continue.”

Julianne Aiello, an undeclared freshman and resident of Building C, said she didn’t see the safety alert, but she said she feels safe on campus, especially in the building.

Dan Shively, a junior psychology major, said he wasn’t aware of the Oct. 24 incident.

“I’m pretty sure most people heard about it though,” he said. “It’s being talked about a lot, being safe and whatnot.”

Even though Building C is a dry building, where alcohol is prohibited, Shively said there have been incidents of people abusing this policy. He said he doesn’t think the situation is out of control.

Shively said students from Campus Village are thinking about starting an escort program in which students could call resident advisers to walk them to and from the dorms.